Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie have continued their Olympic Games journey by representing Ireland in the madison in Paris this evening, where they scored sprint points and gave it a go to gain a lap.
Indeed, while the top tier international madisons, especially at the Olympics, are often decided on the sprints through the event, the medals were very heavily influenced by lap gains, with the Irish pair eventually finishing in 11th place.
Both the Italians and the Dutch took flight to gain a lap - resulting in a 20 point gain - and also take a sprint, worth five points, in the process. And those 25-point dividends for those moves moved both nations into the driving seat.
But the British duo of Elinor Barker and Neah Evans put in a fantastic rider; hoovering up 31 points at the sprints. However, they missed the chance to gain a lap and so having to settled for silver, on a total of 31 points, at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome
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Gold went to the Italians - who were not as heavily marked as the British - with Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini absolutely delighted, and looking a bit stunned, to take the gold on 37 points. The podium was completed by the Dutch - Maike van der Duin and Lisa van Belle - on 28 points.
Gillespie and Sharpe were in the pack through most of the race, as the bigger nations battled it out for points in the 120 point race.
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However, the Irish pair shot into action later in the event when they took 2nd in sprint 10 of 12 - taking three points.
At that stage, the Belgians were already off the front trying to gain and lap and Sharpe took off after her, pulling ahead and looking for a time like she might just sneak away in a bid to gain 20 points.
But the pecking order was well established at that point and the well-place nations were in no mood to let the Belgians go clear at the front and put themselves back into contention.
And it was that pursuit of the Belgians that resulted in Sharpe being swallowed up, and the Team Ireland pairing's efforts to score more points ended.
Still, it was a spirited performance in the very competitive madison event; one that Ireland secured a berth for by virtue of qualifying for the team pursuit, where they have already finished 9th at these Games.
While Sharpe's Olympics are now complete - and she has to be happy with the way she raced - Gillespie still has some business to do, in the omnium this weekend.
Precisely nobody has mentioned her as a medal prospect but given her rate of progress - on both track and road - in recent months, and her general star quality, you'd never know what might happen on Sunday.
